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A Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country with 12,000 miles is up for auction

A hundred years ago, the LeBaron name was among America's top luxury nameplates, so when we heard that auction house R.M. Sotheby's was auctioning one off, we immediately thought of one of the coachbuilt Imperial-branded classics that competed with the highest-order Gatsby-era Cadillacs and Lincolns. What we found instead, however, was arguably even better. It's a 1985 Chrysler LeBaron Town and Country convertible, the one most of us know from when "Back to the Future" was still in theaters, complete with faux wood paneling. This has strong nostalgic value, especially as one of my best grade-school friends' mom had one, and I always felt like a celebrity to get picked up from school with the top down. While the LeBaron name may have fallen from grace by then, becoming the entry-level Chrysler offering, the T&C droptop was the most glamorous of the midsize K-cars. Did the Plymouth Reliant or Dodge Aries have acres of plastic timber applique on their flanks and four words (five if you count "Le" as its own) in their model names? Hell no. It may have been powered by a 2.6-liter Mitsubishi Astron engine, but the front-driver was pure Americana. K-cars were as common in the 1980s as RAV4s are today, and the K platform was largely responsible for saving Chrysler from bankruptcy. Nothing from Ford, GM, Germany or Japan came close, then-CEO Lee Iacocca said, and, "If you can find a better car, buy it!" he would threaten. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Beyond that, the LeBaron was the steed that carried Neal Page and Del Griffith cross-country in time for Thanksgiving dinner in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Esteemed LeBaron T&C owners counted Iacocca himself, Frank Sinatra (a wagon, even!), and if George Costanza is to be believed, Jon Voight. For a car that sold over 2 million examples, the "wood"-sided Town and Country convertible variant was rare. Chrysler made only 1,105 of them, and this particular example has a claimed 12,345 miles on the clock. The color is gold, Jerry, gold! And given what we known in hindsight about their build quality, you're not likely to find a better one. According to its CarFax report, the LeBaron was purchased new in Vermont, where it resided until 2004 when it was sold to a new owner in West Virginia. Five years later, it made its way to a dealer in Utah.

Junkyard Gem: 1990 Plymouth Voyager Turbo

There was a time when the word "TURBO" was king, and even Detroit minivans came with nervous, hair-drier-boosted engines and screaming TURBO badging. Why, some of them even had manual transmissions (sadly, not this van) and in the case of the 1990 Plymouth Voyager Turbo I spotted in a Denver self-service wrecking yard, a lysergic purple paint plus a Bordello Red interior. The first-generation Voyager minivan (not to be confused with the full-sized B-series Voyager van that preceded it) was a tremendous smash hit for Chrysler. Because it came from the K-Car platform, most of the powertrain options available for other members of the many-branched K Family Tree— from the Mitsubishi Astron to the Chrysler turbo 2.5— went into the Voyagers, Caravans, and Town & Countries. The turbocharged 2.5-liter four, rated at 150 horsepower, was an option for the 1989 and 1990 Voyagers. That doesn't sound like much today, an era in which the Voyager's descendants churn out close to 300 horses, but it was lunacy for a front-wheel-drive family hauler that weighed just over 3,000 pounds. And people eventually discovered they could be made far faster than stock. Voyager shoppers could get five-speed manual transmissiona with their Turbo 2.5 engines, though few did. Still, there were more Voyagers and Caravans with the 5-speed than you might think, in part because of the manual transmission's lower cost. The slushbox didn't conquer the Chrysler Corporation Minivan World until 1996. Nissan probably had the most vividly red interiors of the late 1980s and early 1990s, but Chrysler didn't lag far behind. Look at these acres of shiny red plastic and tough, red I Can't Believe It's Not Velour! Because minivans remain useful for decades, most of them have high odometer readings by the time they get junked. So at a little over 115,000 miles, this one may have had a busted speedometer cable. Speedometers reading better than 85 mph were legal after 1981, but perhaps Chrysler decided not to encourage lead-footed hoonery among minivan drivers. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Auntie Entity pitching "the best-loved minivan in the world." Featured Gallery Junked 1990 Plymouth Voyager Turbo View 19 Photos Auto News Chrysler Dodge Automotive History Minivan/Van dodge caravan

UAW reveals more details for tentative FCA deal

Around 40,000 union workers employed by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles have a new proposed contract to vote for or against just about a week after soundly rejecting a previous proposal. Like the contract that was rejected, this new proposal was negotiated between union leadership and management at FCA. If workers vote this time to accept the contract, negotiations are likely to begin in earnest with the other two big American automakers, Ford and General Motors. The biggest sticking points that kept the previous contract proposal from being ratified revolved around so-called second-tier UAW workers. Under the rejected contract, there wasn't a clear path in place that would bring these newer hires into wage parity with first-tier workers. The newly proposed contract, however, would have second-tier employees earning around $29 per hour – the same as first-tier workers – after eight years of employment. A slightly revised profit-sharing plan is also included, as is a larger signing bonus for first-tier workers. Gone from the new contract proposal is a health-care cooperative that would combine workers from all three Detroit-based automakers into one pool. While this action had the potential to lower health-care costs for UAW members, it wasn't universally understood by rank-and-file workers, said UAW President Dennis Williams. "I was a little naive," he said. "I really thought everyone understood it. It is my fault. I should have educated people more on it. And so we did take it out of the agreement." If ratified, this new contract will go into effect immediately and will cover a four-year period. Over that course of time, the UAW expects FCA to increase its employment figures by a little more than 100 workers, according to reports. Additional details on the contract can be seen on the UAW's website here. News Source: The Detroit News, The Detroit Free Press, United Auto Workers (PDF)Image Credit: Jeff Kowalsky/Bloomberg via Getty Earnings/Financials Hirings/Firings/Layoffs UAW/Unions Chrysler Fiat FCA